Japan's 2025 pension reform law will stop a foreign national who leaves the country holding a re-entry permit from claiming the pension lump-sum withdrawal payment for as long as that permit remains valid. The provision is already law, sitting in Act No. 74 of 2025, promulgated on 20 June 2025, but it is not operating yet: it commences on a date to be fixed by Cabinet Order within four years of promulgation, which puts the outer limit at June 2029.
The same package raises the payment's upper limit from five years of contributions to eight. Both halves of the change are waiting on secondary legislation, and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has published no commencement date for either.
What the amendment actually says
The ministry's outline of the Act states the restriction in one line: 「再入国の許可を受けて出国した外国人について、当該許可の有効期間内は脱退一時金を請求できないこととする。」 A foreign national who has departed under a re-entry permit may not claim the lump-sum withdrawal while that permission is valid. The explanatory material adds that the payment becomes claimable if the permit expires without the person returning.
The commencement line is equally short: 「Ⅲ②は公布から４年以内の政令で定める日」. Nothing in the published outline attaches a transitional measure to it, although the advisory council that recommended the change had said one would be needed.
This change reaches residents only
The lump-sum withdrawal exists for people who have been enrolled in Japan's public pension system and leave before qualifying for a pension. Short-stay visitors are never enrolled, so nothing here applies to them. The people affected are current and former mid-to-long-term residents: anyone who has paid into Employees' Pension Insurance or the National Pension for at least six months and then leaves Japan.
The rules that stand until the Cabinet Order
Until commencement, a re-entry permit does not block anything. The Japan Pension Service's conditions, as published on its page updated on 1 April 2026, are: no Japanese nationality; not currently insured; at least six months of contribution-equivalent coverage; the ten-year old-age qualifying period not met; never entitled to a disability pension; no address in Japan; and no more than two years elapsed since insured status was lost. The claim itself must be filed within two years of ceasing to have an address in Japan.
The current ceiling is 60 months, or five years, where the final contribution month falls on or after April 2021, and 36 months for earlier cases. That ceiling is what the reform lifts to eight years, and the ministry's material says the figure will be set by Cabinet Order: 「政令で措置予定」.
Why the restriction was proposed
The reasoning is in the papers put to the Social Security Council's pension committee on 15 November 2024. The committee's objection to the present arrangement was that 「現行制度においては、再入国許可付き出国をした場合でも脱退一時金の受給が可能となっており、滞在途中の一時的な帰国の際に脱退一時金を受給するとそれまでの年金加入期間がなくなってしまう」, meaning that taking the payment during a temporary trip home erases the coverage accrued up to that point.
That erasure is the part worth understanding before anyone claims. Coverage months that are cashed out stop counting toward the ten-year qualifying period, and a person's pension record is one of the things weighed in residence decisions, including applications for permanent residence.
The numbers behind it
In fiscal 2022 the system paid out on 94,266 decisions. Of those, 22,803, or 24.19%, went to people who had departed holding a re-entry permit, against 71,463 simple departures. Among the re-entry-permit group the largest single status was Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services, at 7,469 claims, 32.75% of that group. Simple departures were dominated by Designated Activities at 27,866 and Technical Intern Training (ii) at 27,528. Across fiscal 2014 to fiscal 2023 the system recorded 833,806 decisions, with 4.1% of recipients claiming twice or more.
What the published material does not settle
Two points are open. The amendment speaks of 「再入国の許可」, and the ministry's papers reproduce the Immigration Control Act's deemed re-entry permission provision alongside it without saying whether the restriction extends to that route, the box ticked on the embarkation card and valid for one year, which is how most residents leave on an ordinary trip. The published outline does not address it.
The second is timing. No Cabinet Order has been issued, and the ordinances made under this reform so far cover only defined-contribution and iDeCo items, which took effect on 1 April 2026 and are due on 1 December 2026.
Anyone weighing a claim against keeping their coverage should check their own contribution months at a pension office before deciding, and watch for the commencement order on the ministry's pension reform pages rather than assuming the current rules will hold.
Sources: MHLW outline of the pension reform Act, MHLW explanatory material on Act No. 74 of 2025, Social Security Council pension committee, 20th meeting, paper 2 on 脱退一時金, MHLW on the 20 June 2025 promulgation, Japan Pension Service — lump-sum withdrawal payments, MHLW — 2025 pension system reforms